The house on Isacov Street – Amit Boarding House.
THE BOARDING HOUSE STAFF
MANAGEMENT AND CAREGIVING
MANAGER | SARIT MAIMON
Holds a first degree in special education and a teaching certificate. Graduated from Vingate Institute’s behavior analysis course. Amit employee since 1999.
Started her way in Amit as a caregiver while she was an education student, and since then progressed through a series of roles in the boarding house, making her mark on the house’s professional methods and ideology. She became hostel manager in 2015. Sarit’s line of progress in the boarding house gave her a deep understanding of the work and the staff’s daily challenges, which shows in the way she manages the staff with utmost tentativeness, support and nourishment. This is how she creates a warm, supportive and promotive home for the boarding house residents.
HOUSE MOTHER | ELLA VASIVEK
The house mother is responsible for the boarding house’s physical aspects (decoration, furnishing, clothes, food etc.). She supervises the caregiving staff, the maintenance staff, the cooking and cleaning staff and the different advisors in the boarding house. Ella tarted her way in Amit as a caregiver in 1996 and since then she passed designated training and certification courses. She has been house mother since 2000. Ella graduated from a wholistic personal coach course and also functions as a personal coach for the staff.
SHIFT MANAGERS
The shift manager staff is composed of senior certified caregivers with many years of experience. They lead the caregiving staff through work on the different shifts.
Haia Ben-Hamo – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2000, responsible for the employment room.
Lea Safrani – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2000, responsible for the work arrangement.
Svetlana Cohen – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2003, morning shift manager and leader of the shift manager staff for many years.
Rahel Ben-Yakar – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2005, responsible for the “extension” of the boarding house (“The House on Limon St.”), where former residents prepare to be further implemented in society outside the boarding house.
Miriam Avraham, certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2009, responsible for “The Vila”, a unit similar in function to the extension, but is a part of the main boarding house facility.
Nasrin Abu-Alhalawa – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2013, leads the boarding house construction team.
Irit Aronov – certified caregiver, Amit employee since 2017, has worked in all the boarding house’s housing units and has utilized her experience to lead the staff that she manages.
CAREGIVERS
Tend to the residents directly and accompany them in all aspects of life.
All the caregivers go through a special training course when they enter the position, and later they take a series of advanced study workshops, which include dealing with challenging behavior, first aid course and workshops in different aspects of caregiving, as well as study days dedicated to subjects such as “Report Obligation Law,” operating promotion programs, and self-representation.
Every year caregivers are sent to get re-certified by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services to work with developmentally disabled people.
The caregiving staff is the heart of the boarding house, and all the other professionals on the site are tasked with assisting and developing it.
PROFESSIONALIZED STAFF
SOCIAL WORKERS | GAL BEN YA’AKOV
Gal Ben-Yaakov has been a Social Worker in Amit since 2016.
The Social Worker’s main job is to nourish the connections with the residents’ families and the different bodies in the community that affect the residents and their families. In addition, the Social Worker provides emotional support, leads social groups, and is responsible for the social-sexual field. She assists in all the workshops held in Amit, and teaches some of them herself. On a regular basis, Gal takes workshops and enrichment days held by The Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, and is sent to take special courses by Amit.
PROMOTION AND BAHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROGRAMS COORDINATOR | DADI KATZAV
Holds a degree in education, certified behavior analysist, Amit employee since 2016, in charge of writing the resident’s personal program in cooperation with the other professionals in the boarding house. He utilizes a computerized system of data collection and analysis developed in the boarding house, which is serves as a model for programs used by other homes.
EDUCATION COORDINATOR | EINAT BEHAR
Holds a first degree in education. In charge of designing the boarding house’s cultural and educational ways since 2016. The education coordinator oversees the special activity instructors, and with them she constructs the leisure, culture, holiday and vacation program for the boarding house.
The residents will, talents and skills are the base upon which the education coordinator builds the culture, education and leisure programs in the boarding house.
PSYCHOLOGIST | MENI EIZENBACH
Clinical psychologist, Amit employee since 2011. Meni meets with the boarding house residents for weekly private talks and is an important and active participant in writing the residents’ personal programs and in teaching different workshops for the residents and the staff.
MEDICAL STAFF
Physician | Dr. Yehiel Shaked
Specializes in internal medicine and infectiology. Has a broad experience with all types of illnesses and with general diagnosis.
His professional experience includes: department assistant manager in Tel Hashomer and Beilinson hospitals, family doctor in Maccabi healthcare services, internal medicine lecturer in Tel Aviv university, chairman of IDF medical committees as lieutenant colonel (Sgan Aluf) and head arbiter for medical committees in the National Insurance Institute of Israel.
Dr, Yehiel Shaked founded Amit boarding house’s infirmary in the early 2000s, but his busy schedule did not allow him to accompany it at the time. Now that he is retired, he returned to manage the infirmary. He visits the boarding house twice a week or as needed and oversees the daily medical and preventative care for the boarding house residents. Alongside his longtime work as a doctor, Dr. Yehiel Shaked is a painter whose works are presented in Israel and abroad.
PSYCHIATRIST | DR JENNET SHAKED
Senior psychiatrist, accompanies Amit since 1994. Dr. Shaked has personal meetings with residents in need of her assistance and cooperates with the professionalized staff and the medical staff.
SENIOR NURSE | LARISA ISACOV
Amit employee since 2003, leader of the infirmary staff since 2013.
NURSING STAFF
The boarding house infirmary employs certified nurses who operate according to standard medical procedure and are directly supervised by the head nurse in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services’ developmental disability treatment sector.
PRE-MEDICINE AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE STAFF
PHYSICAL THERAPY | MUHAMAD DASUKI
Certifies physical therapist. Mans the boarding house’s physical therapy room and offers personal and group treatments according to the residents’ needs.
SHIATSU | AVI UZIEL
Shiatsu (Japanese: 指圧, “shi” means finger and “atsu” means pressure) is a form of contact therapy from alternative medicine. Originating from Japan, it is meant to treat orthopedic issues in the spine, neurological issues, digestive issues, gynecological issues, and emotional issues such as stress, depression etc. Avi Uziel is specifically certified to work with people with developmental disability, works with Amit since 1997, and alongside the personal treatments he offers he also operates therapeutic groups together with other professionals in the boarding house.
NUTRITIONIST | PAZ SOMMER
The nutritionist visits the boarding house weekly. She supervises our choices of food for the meals and assists the housemother in constructing personalized menus for residents with special dietary needs. The nutritionist is directly supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services. She works in cooperation with the boarding house’s medical staff.
PEDICURE AND MANICURE
Pedicure and Manicure sessions are offered regularly in the hostel by a trained professional to all residents who want them.
KITCHEN, CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE STAFF
KITCHEN STAFF
The kitchen staff, composed of cooks and their assistants, acts out the nutritionist’s instructions, cooking various menus daily to answer the residents’ needs and personal preferences to the best of our ability.
CLEANING STAFF
The cleaning staff is directly supervised by the housemother and works daily to maintain the boarding house’s vital hygiene and cleanliness.
MAINTENANCE STAFF
The maintenance staff, headed by maintenance manager Moshe Trbelsi, tends to the boarding house facilities, sometimes getting assistance from exterior professionals for special jobs.
LEIZURE AND ENRICHMENT STAFF
ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY
Animal assisted therapy occurs in the boarding house in two ways: In the boarding house petting zoo, and in a weekly class of dog training.
The boarding house petting zoo is supervised by a caregiver who was specifically trained by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services to operate petting zoos for developmentally disabled people. It is open every morning, and the animals who live there may be observed at any time.
Dog training classes are instructed by a professional dog trainer. It occurs weekly. Its participants perform with their dogs in displays for holidays and special events.
PROMOTIVE AND PRESERVATIVE LESSONS
The boarding house employs a certified teacher who comes three times a week to promote the residents’ reading and writing abilities and preserve them. The teacher does her job according to the residents needs and abilities and utilizes various professional tools to fulfil her purpose.
ENRICHMENT CLASSES INSTRUCTORS
The boarding house offers weekly classes in plastic arts, performance arts, sports and social empowerment. All the classes are instructed by professionals registered and supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services.
The list of classes may be found here.